Surveillance Society: New High-Tech Cameras Are Watching You

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• surveillance
• security
• law enforcement
• government
• cameras

The ferry arrived, the gangway went down and 7-year-old Emma Powell rushed toward the Statue of Liberty. She climbed onto the grass around the star-shaped foundation. She put on a green foam crown with seven protruding rays. Turning so that her body was oriented just like Lady Liberty's, Emma extended her right arm skyward with an imaginary torch. I snapped a picture. Then I took my niece's hand, and we went off to buy some pretzels.

Other people were taking pictures, too, and not just the other tourists—Liberty Island, name notwithstanding, is one of the most heavily surveilled places in America. Dozens of cameras record hundreds of hours of video daily, a volume that strains the monitoring capability of guards. The National Park Service has enlisted extra help, and as Emma and I strolled around, we weren't just being watched by people. We were being watched by machines.

Liberty Island's video cameras all feed into a computer system. The park doesn't disclose details, but fully equipped, the system is capable of running software that analyzes the imagery and automatically alerts human overseers to any suspicious events. The software can spot when somebody abandons a bag or backpack. It has the ability to discern between ferryboats, which are allowed to approach the island, and private vessels, which are not. And it can count bodies, detecting if somebody is trying to stay on the island after closing, or assessing when people are grouped too tightly together, which might indicate a fight or gang activity. "A camera with artificial intelligence can be there 24/7, doesn't need a bathroom break, doesn't need a lunch break and doesn't go on vacation," says Ian Ehrenberg, former vice president of Nice Systems, the program's developer.

Most Americans would probably welcome such technology at what clearly is a marquee terrorist target. An ABC News/Washington Post poll in July 2007 found that 71 percent of Americans favor increased video surveillance. What people may not realize, however, is that advanced monitoring systems such as the one at the Statue of Liberty are proliferating around the country. High-profile national security efforts make the news—wiretapping phone conversations, Internet moni­toring—but state-of-the-art surveillance is increasingly being used in more every-day settings. By local police and businesses. In banks, schools and stores. There are an estimated 30 million surveillance cameras now deployed in the United States shooting 4 billion hours of footage a week. Americans are being watched, all of us, almost everywhere.

We have arrived at a unique moment in the history of surveillance. The price of both megapixels and gigabytes has plummeted, making it possible to collect a previously unimaginable quantity and quality of data. Advances in processing power and software, meanwhile, are beginning to allow computers to surmount the greatest limitation of traditional surveillance—the ability of eyeballs to effectively observe the activity on dozens of video screens simultaneously. Computers can't do all the work by themselves, but they can expand the capabilities of humans exponentially.

Security expert Bruce Schneier says that it is naive to think that we can stop these technological advances, especially as they become more affordable and are hard-wired into everyday businesses. (I know of a local pizzeria that warns customers with a posted sign: "Stop stealing the spice shakers! We know who you are, we have 24-hour surveillance!") But it is also reckless to let the advances proceed without a discussion of safeguards against privacy abuses. "Society is fundamentally changing and we aren't having a conversation about it," Schneier says. "We are entering the era of wholesale surveillance."

25. RE: Surveillance Society: New High-Tech Cameras Are Watching You
Thanks for your interresting article,I work in such an office security surveillace control with honeywell built Computers and Cameras,in Nigeria.What are the health effect of working in such a place. Regards

24. RE: Surveillance Society: New High-Tech Cameras Are Watching You
23 - they've been watching you since you were little - cameras or humans you've been watched for many years whether it's the ranger in the truck, tower or on foot in a park or the cameras at work, in the wild or on the street. About the only time you have privacy (as far as you know) is taking a leak and even then you arent totally invisible - some businesses and others are putting infrared detectors they call "fire sensors" in restrooms and the loophole is that your image is not being viewed or recorded but heat above 150 degrees is - to curb vandalism and smoking in restrooms. Doesnt make the system trigger a fire alarm until it is intense enough to consider a fire but it does trigger an alert to mark taping of those that exit the restroom during the time the heat is detected and shortly after. We had IR sensors in the military to auto trigger halon extinguishers within so many seconds of a hot spot being noted with an audible alarm and panic button to override and kill a false alarm. In the 70's when CB was only 23 channels and required a license fee - they monitored in vans and many times vans would be in front of a house with either an illegal unlicensed rig or an overwattage rig - and they did nail people and fine them and in some cases brought warrants from federal judges to seize equipment. How do I know? I lost a 100 watt linear in 1973 to this and they were honest-to-goodness FCC people with a deputy marshall that did the legalities. No outside antenna, no long transmissions. Took them a while but they watched once they guessed the transmitter was for 2 days and figured out the pattern. This was in a large crowded city too, not out in the boonies...lots harder to figure out with a block of houses than one house on 300 acres. You are being watched

23. Surveillance Society: New High-Tech Cameras Are Watching You
Number 22's comment is way off base. Being in a public place doesn't necessarily mean "someone else can observe my behavior" and therefore isn't an invasion of privacy. How many of us go camping, hiking, fishing, rafting and so on? Most of the time, these activities are on "public property". I choose to go camping to "get away from it all". If I hike far enough, there aren't any people ANYWHERE. Now it seems one day I'll be 20 miles from nearest person and still be recorded. That is an invasion of my privacy. The "if you have nothing to hide, you shouldn't mind" has been the mantra of totalitarian regimes for centuries. In other words, I have nothing to hide AND I don't want to have every move I make recorded.

22. RE: Surveillance Society: New High-Tech Cameras Are Watching You
I do not mind video cameras in public. How is your privacy being invaded if you are in public? Public means "of, concerning, or available to the people as a whole" if you are in public everything that you do can be observed by someone else anyway. If a police officer is going to be watching me than so be it. However, the minute the government tries to monitor me in my own home, then I have a problem.

21. RE: Surveillance Society: New High-Tech Cameras Are Watching You
Nice article - it's a shame that in all cases where these systems are in place, the organisations have totally failed to address several key issues: how long do they keep the data for? who will they turn the data over to if asked? if I want to see what data they have on me, will they comply? As for the ridiculous argument that keeps coming back like a bad penny, that of 'you have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide', that's just plain ignorance. Pervasive surveillance ensures that sensitive and private aspects of our lives become public knowledge, and absolutely everybody without question engages in something they'd prefer to be kept private. This doesn't make it illegal or nefarious; just private. The sooner people realise this, the better.

20. RE: Surveillance Society: New High-Tech Cameras Are Watching You
Website: www.pcsurveillance.net
The article adresses something that we all strive for ourselves, moderation! When does too much information, cross into being a bad thing? The world is constantly changing, and society changes with it. If people were not asking for security/surveillance systems, companies like myself would be doing something else. Government is a large user of these systems, but so is the guy who owns a conveinance store or a small business. Companies such as Lowe's and Home Depot are starting to use these systems to better serve and understand customrs (how long do they stay in an aisle and what pattern do they take into the store). This article could be run twenty years from now, and it will still be relevent, just change the technology and the date. Change, that is what we are talking about!

19. RE: Surveillance Society: New High-Tech Cameras Are Watching You
In regards to "If you aren't doing something wrong you don't have anything to worry about" lets take a recent example such as the smear campaigns of candidates. Countless hours of surveillance would make it very easy to misrepresent someone.

18. RE: Surveillance Society: New High-Tech Cameras Are Watching You
Any person willing to give up there Freedom, and Privacy, in exchange for "safety", doesn't need them anyway.. Freedom and Privacy, I mean, if you aren't clear..

17. RE: Surveillance Society: New High-Tech Cameras Are Watching You
why does the owner of the camara own the copyright on an image created by the subject of the camara? A person who writes a poem on a kitchen napkin automaticly owns the copyright. Why is an image different?

16. RE: Surveillance Society: New High-Tech Cameras Are Watching You
I DON'T like it.... This is just another offshoot of the original FEAR campaign that was used to get us into a war with Iraq. A well known NAZI tactic that Hitler also was successful with. I remember that as a youth I studied martial arts and when walking in downtown Seattle I found myself watching how people stepped in case I needed a quick reaction.... I soon realized that I was living in fear... and rejected it. However the masses don't have that experience and it is being exploited across the board to take away any freedom that remains. How is it that we as Americans have become so ignorant and accepting of all this B__LS__T?

15. RE: Surveillance Society: New High-Tech Cameras Are Watching You
Website: www.discount-digital-security-camera.com
Hey I think this is great. I am a security consultant and unless you are up to no good then you should feel safe. I mean this needs to be expanded internationally and the feats that come from efficiency and connectivity is what I have been talking about in my blog for years. But for all the people who are afriad of this, just this year congress passed a bill that will let utiliy companies start monitoring the tempartures in your homes and this means no more unpaid bills. Instant cutt-off, also the FBI has a growing network of point and click surveillance systems and these surveillance cameras can record realtime and they hear what you are talking about, even on a cellphone!! You can visit my blog we talk about all kinds of topics regarding the expansion of the digital and information age. -chad- www.blog.discount-digital-security-camera.com

14. RE: Surveillance Society: New High-Tech Cameras Are Watching You
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759 US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790)

13. RE: Surveillance Society: New High-Tech Cameras Are Watching You
good story..long dated surveillance is key point..what about on-body personal cameras ,auto-streaming thru cellphones to provide record of crime or violence...would answer questions after the fact.

12. RE: Surveillance Society: New High-Tech Cameras Are Watching You
Website: http://www.doktorjon.co.uk
In response to #9, it is true that proponents of video surveillance have long promoted the concept of systems providing deterrence to crime, merely by their visible presence. The truth of the matter is somewhat more complex, simply because a notional deterrent effect is not so much based on visibility, but rather the perception in the mind of a potential offender, that if they commit a crime they will be recorded and ultimately apprehended. Where CCTV systems are intrinsically flawed, or fundamentally incorrectly profiled, commissioned and operated, then no amount of expenditure on equipment is ever going to make it work effectively in preventing criminal activity; but then in theory at least, "Deterrence through Detection" (DtD) is a very workable strategy which is sadly disregarded, more through ignorance than intent.

11. RE: Surveillance Society: New High-Tech Cameras Are Watching You
All this surveillance poses quite a dilemma. Like most powerful technologies, it has the potential for abuse, and since humans control it, some will most definitely abuse it. Still, I believe it has some limited deterrent effect for criminals. However, it won't totally prevent a criminal from attacking you. For that, you need a trusty Smith & Wesson in your pocket.

10. RE: Surveillance Society: New High-Tech Cameras Are Watching You
The amount of cameras and recording going on just now isn't TOO alarming, the problem is that it's going to get worse. Once they have you/us on board they will take it to the extreme and it will be too late to try and slow it down, let alone reverse it a bit. I'm starting to believe the people talking about the New World Order who I used to think were crazy. When you think about it, it really does seem like we're heading in that direction. I don't think it will stop until everything and everyone is being recorded and tracked. They are fingerprinting and even chipping children now, not just tracking movements via mobile phones. Quite scary actually. I haven't been and don't intend to be a lawbreaker but I am not at all comfortable with all of this at all. But what difference does all that make anyway when you are given lousy punishments when caught?? As a free country people should actually have the freedom to break the law, as crazy as that sounds.

9. RE: Surveillance Society: New High-Tech Cameras Are Watching You
It wasn't so much in Bentham's panopticon that "guards could see all of the prisoners at all times without their knowing they were being watched (p 68)" but rather compliance could be acheived without guards being present at all. Big difference. Foucault's adaptation of panopticon probably is closer to the features being discussed here (and most certainly in the PM newstand issue article on the utopian rehab of San Francisco's Treasure Island).

8. RE: Surveillance Society: New High-Tech Cameras Are Watching You
In response to #3, I agree that this kind of ubiquitous, orwellian surveillance only serves to document a crime after its been committed, but it would be better to spend money on programs for prisoners - like GED education, drug treatment, psychological counseling, and post-release follow-up, to insure that inmates have a shot at making it on the outside without resorting to a "life of crime" (which let's face it, usually means lowlevel drug dealing), rather than waste more money on newer and larger prisons. This attitude that demands vengeance and punishment for crime is counterproductive, and merely results in a vicious cycle in which an entire socio-economic segment of society is locked up. But maybe that's the point. The gulag is an incredibly effective tool for controlling the populace. It's the other side of the coin to the apparatus of the surveillance state.

7. RE: Surveillance Society: New High-Tech Cameras Are Watching You
if the true intent of these devices is to create a safe atmosphere for eveyone, what actions are being put in place to make sure that the people who have access to these devices are in fact trustworthy people? I have been the target of unfair and unconstitutional profiling on more than one occasion. Being harassed by a police officer leaves the victim with nothing but a loss of trust and a general feeling of being bullied by the very people who are supposted to be PROTECTING your rights. My biggest fear is that the exploitation of such technology will eventually be available to any person who wears a badge. at that point so much information will be amassed about individuals that such bullying will require little to no effort. Are there any other people who share such feelings? What effect will this have on people who enter witness protection? Will this just be one more way to suppress people from excersizing their Right to Free Speech and ultimately end voiceing any opposition to the practicies and laws that such agencys depend upon for remaining "above the law"? P.S. I loved the Watching the watchers article, one of my favorites yet! Keep up the great work!

6. RE: Surveillance Society: New High-Tech Cameras Are Watching You
Beelze Bush is not the only one in favor of the nazi like satanic intrusion. Hillary and the rest want their control freak government. Like satan, if their way is good, why do they have to deceive, or use force to acquire it?

5. RE: Surveillance Society: New High-Tech Cameras Are Watching You
The shame of it all is that the majority of the 25 million spent on the security equipment after 9/11 at the Statue of Liberty is not now working. Some of which never worked. The maintenance, upgrade needs and lack of training was not considered when the equipment was purchased.

4. RE: Surveillance Society: New High-Tech Cameras Are Watching You
Other unforeseen surveillance effects [intended] include increased instances of recorded "spirit sightings": Ghostly images, often traceable to specific incidents, that appear on film though undetected by subjects sharing frames. Some of these depictions are quite sinister. Who knows where this may lead?

3. RE: Surveillance Society: New High-Tech Cameras Are Watching You
I think the average person expects cameras to reduce crime, but it seems the reality is that it only documents the crime for better prosecution. Considering how high the recidivism rate is, it makes more sense to spend money keeping criminals in jail where they belong than on things that don't actually reduce crime.

2. All Surveillance Isn't Created Equal
Website: www.inhardfocus.com
While it’s true that over 70% of American’s state a willingness to endure privacy invasion and surveillance as part of efforts to fight crime and save lives, traffic enforcement efforts using the same technologies aren’t nearly so popular. That’s Bloomberg’s problem. His “surveillance” cameras aren’t REALLY for general surveillance. Instead, they are specialized high-speed cameras zoomed in to focus on the license plates of Manhattan traffic. And while they’ll do an excellent job tracking the daily movements of NY commuters, they will do very little to deter crime in the areas they are deployed.

1. RE: Surveillance Society: New High-Tech Cameras Are Watching You
Website: http://www.doktorjon.co.uk
Very interesting article James! The curious thing about the inevitable progression towards automated surveillance, is that little if any regard is given to the much lower level aspect of camera and system optimisation. Whilst "Video Analytic" systems develop in leaps and bounds, the simple principles of how, where and why CCTV / IP Video cameras are deployed is more often than not totally disregarded. There is a danger that whilst many system operators rush to deploy 'state of the art' systems, they risk losing sight of the basics, and may well compromise the efficiency of their systems, simply through lack of knowledge and consideration of the fundamental key objectives.

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